LOV 2024 – a shining success with record visitor turnout

The second “Light our Vision” (LOV) Festival of Light Art has once again seen Chemnitz shine in its full glory, exceeding all expectations with an overwhelming number of visitors – estimated at 75,000 people – over its four evenings. Marienplatz (Mary’s Square) was the centrepiece of the impressive light installations and became a vibrant meeting point for the city. Friday, the busiest day of the Festival, saw some 25,000 people gather in the city centre.

A successful event with a wealth of positive feedback

Baukultur für Chemnitz e. V., the association behind the festival, is hugely satisfied with how peaceful and smooth the event turned out to be. Event Manager Manuel Grießbach from Chemnitzer Tourismus und Marketing GmbH was delighted that everything went according to plan despite the immense organisational challenges – with no technical disruptions and with great feedback from visitors and artists alike. Linda Hüttner, Deputy Chair of Baukultur für Chemnitz e. V., summarises:
“The artists were delighted with both the atmosphere and the crowds, who applauded at many of the installations and even shouted for an encore in front of the Opera House.”

“Our greatest motivation is seeing the swathes of enthusiastic faces in the crowd, seeing the city centre fuller and livelier than at almost any other time. We’re delighted with the huge amount of positive feedback and great pictures in the press and on social media, and also the messages of support that have reached us privately. LOV 2024 has once again overwhelmed us”, adds Lotte Claudia Fischer, Chair of Baukultur für Chemnitz e. V.

Marienplatz (Mary’s Square) as a visionary centrepiece

In keeping with the Festival’s vision, Marienplatz became symbolic of where the future of urban planning could go. “The vision of developing this site into a sports and cultural campus remains our overall goal. We really want to see it transformed into an extraordinary, architecturally outstanding development that will boost Chemnitz’s appeal even further”, says Fischer.
The Festival once again showed how creative light art can uncover the hidden potentials of the city and illuminate future perspectives.

Thanks to the many helpers and volunteers

Special thanks go to the droves of donors and sponsors, as well as the volunteers who worked together to make the Festival a success. “Without this commitment, LOV would simply not have been possible in this form”, explains the organising committee.

Optimisation and outlook for 2025

Light our Vision 2024 was a successful warm-up event for Chemnitz’s year as the Capital of Culture in 2025. Instead of making next year’s Festival longer and bigger, the team has decided to focus on qualitative improvements. “This year’s scope already pushed us to our limits. Claudia and I alone have a total of 900 volunteer hours on the books”, says Hüttner.

“Next year, we’ll focus even more on showcasing the artistic quality of the installations and optimising the technical setup behind the scenes.” This includes things like reducing disruptive factors such as overlapping lighting in order to keep the technical effort required to keep the installations shining in their best light at an appropriate level.

“We were delighted that so many guests followed the suggested route. But we also heard that some people didn’t manage to see everything in one evening. That doesn’t really speak in favour of expanding the Festival either”, says Fischer. “That’s why we don’t want to go bigger next time, but rather focus on developing in terms of quality.” After all, the Festival’s high profile and Chemnitz’s appeal beyond the city limits all hinge on its quality.

LOV to remain a fixture on Chemnitz’s calendar

The next Festival of Light Art is already planned for 24 to 27 September 2025. “We’re deliberately staying in autumn so that families with children can attend from 7.30 pm. It’s dark by then, but not that late”, explains Fischer. In addition, the Festival takes place outside of the summer and public holiday period to enable as many Chemnitz residents as possible to visit. The association is standing by its vision of taking Chemnitz into a bright future through light art.

Call for support

At the press conference back in August, Linda Hüttner said that the budget had already doubled compared to the previous year. “If you add up all the contributions, including preparation and follow-up work, all the volunteer hours, the unpaid work, gifts and donations in kind, as well as the sponsorship money, we end up with a realistic value for the four days of the Festival of Light Art of at least 640,000 euro”, say the organisers.

LOV 3.0 will also (have to) be financed purely through donations and sponsorship. The current crowdfunding campaign will run until 1 October 2024. The organisers are keen to receive advance pledges of support for 2025 to give them an element of planning security. Fischer: “We would like to thank all the volunteers who have shown such fantastic commitment and, of course, everyone who has supported us financially. Now it’s up to all of us to ensure that the lights come on in Chemnitz in 2025.”

For further information and press enquiries:

Lotte Claudia Fischer, Dipl.-Ing. Interior Designer, Tel: +49 (0)177 5272254, claudia@lightourvision.de
Linda Hüttner, Dipl.-Ing. Architect, Tel: +49 (0) 371 5233539, linda@lightourvision.de

About Baukultur für Chemnitz e. V.

Founded in March 2022 by members of the Saxony Chamber of Architects and people who share its vision, the association is the key organiser behind the “Light our Vision” Festival of Light Art. Chaired by Lotte Claudia Fischer, it aims to implement projects and ideas, including those developed by the working groups of the Saxony Chamber of Architects, in Chemnitz using donations and public funds. Further information at www.baukultur-chemnitz.de

About the Architektenkammer Sachsen (Saxony Chamber of Architects)

The Saxony Chamber of Architects (AKS) is a chamber of liberal professions, a public corporation, professional association and self-administration body for over 3,200 architects, interior designers, landscape architects and urban planners in Saxony. Its primary task is to cultivate, promote and effectively support the building industry, in particular the built environment, architecture, urban planning and landscape design sectors. In July 2021, a new “Chemnitz – Capital of Culture 2025” working group was formed under the Saxony Chamber of Architects umbrella. A small team of architects from Chemnitz, led by Lotte Claudia Fischer, is collecting ideas and planning exciting projects for the city’s year as the European Capital of Culture in 2025. The Chemnitz Festival of Light Art “Light our Vision” is one such project.
Further information at www.aksachsen.org and www.lightourvision.de